It’s LitCrawl Time Again!

We are super honored to be working with KQED and LitQuake once more, to bring you a taste of DEMG during their annual big LitCrawl show! Join us Oct 14th at The Laundry, 3359 26th Street San Francisco, during the third leg of LitCrawl! 8 PM! This show is titled “¡Bad Immigrants!” and will bring you literary performances from immigrant writers on the strength, hilarity, and humanity of being an immigrant. With performances by: Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Amanda Muñiz, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and Camilo Villa.Ingrid Rojas Contreras is a Colombian writer based in San Francisco. Her debut novel, Fruit of the Drunken Tree, is forthcoming in 2018. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, and Guernica, among others.She is the book columnist for KQED and currently teaches Fiction at the University of San Francisco.

Camilo Villa is a Colombian artist and poet based in Oakland, California. He has performed in venues, such as The Queer Open Mic and Donde esta mí gente. Camilo holds a Fine Arts Degree with a minor in Social Action & Public Forms from the California College of the Arts.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is an artist of mixed Pakistani and Lebanese descent. He has performed with Radar Productions, The Stud, throughout the U.S, Colombia, Pakistan and Dubai. Some of you might ask, why Zulfi is performing with us, and we’re like, why not? Though, DEMG is a Latinx Performance showcase, we invited Zulfikar to join us in solidarity with our queer Muslim immigrant siblings. As pocs we should support each other and make space for each other, also DEMG is a huge fan of Zulfikar, his work is incredible. DEMG stands with all immigrants.

Amanda Muñiz is a writer from Puebla, Mexico currently studying English Literature and Latino Studies at San Francisco State. She is inspired by her parents, the migrant experience, the land she has trekked over, and chisme.

CLICK HERE for the FB info, and to share the event and invite all your friends!!! Don’t forget, Saturday, Oct 14th at The Laundry, 3359 26th Street San Francisco, during the third leg of LitCrawl! 8 PM!

to be collaborating with one of San Francisco’s oldest and most respected Queer Literary Organizations, RADAR Productions! RADAR curates public events that support emerging queer artists and bona fide superstars, which is why we are over la luna happy to be working with them.

Our team up show is this Thursday! The show is FREE, so no excuses, you all better be there. Representing ¿DEMG? Will be Tomas Moniz, sexy Chicano writer publisher who has performed with us several times, and super adorable Camilo Villa all the way here form Colombia. Baruch will be there but the event will be hosted by the super rad Julianna Delgado Lopera.

Hello everyone, Baruch here, Yesterday I was truly moved and overjoyed by the artists at the ¿Donde Esta Mi Gente? reading at Beast Crawl. I have not had that many audience members thank me as they left a show in a long time. There was like, a line of people, that was pretty neat. The show went so well, three people came up to me after and told me they wanted to be donors to the performance series. I want to thank Zulfi Faluda, René VazEloisa Bravo, Amanda Muniz, and Javier Zamora for being incredibly flexible, true professionals, and for their top notch performances, thank you guys, you are what makes DEMG great, and make me happy DEMG exists. The venue was small, it was super hot, but the audience were troopers, and sat in that heat to hear the poetry and comedy. THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone that came to the show. OUR NEXT DONDE ESTA MI GENTE IS I OCTOBER!!

Hello everyone! ¿Como estamos?

Sorry it’s been FOREVER, since we posted on this website, but we are back, and we hopey you all come out to support us in Oakland! Read the info below and see you all this Saturday!

¿Donde Esta Mi Gente? RETURNS this time as part of the BEAST CRAWL LITERARY FESTIVAL!

OUR TIME SLOT: 8 PM!!!

OUR VENUE: The New Parkway Theater! 474 24th ST, Oakland CA 94612

We are so excited to be a part ot this fantastic annual event in Oakland. ¿Donde Esta Mi Gente? is bringing together some of the bay area’s most exciting writers, poets, comedians, and performers to speak on the themes of immigration, strength, resilience, hilarity, what makes a good or bad immigrant, and how to survive the next four years.
¿Donde Esta Mi Gente? was created in part by a REGEN Artist grant from the Galeria de la Raza and focuses on dynmaic Latinx literary perfomers, comics, and musicians. For this show we are having a very special guest Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in solidarity with our fellow immigrants who are not Latinx.

SEE YOU ALL THERE! ALSO, IF YOU GOT A CHANCE, SHARE THE FB EVENT, OR RSVP ON FACEBOOK!

MORE ON THE PERFORMERSBaruch Porras Hernandez
is a writer and performer based in San Francisco. He was born in Toluca, Mexico and grew up in California.

Javier Zamora
was born in El Salvador and migrated to the US when he was nine. He is a 2016-2018 Wallace Stegner Fellow and holds fellowships from CantoMundo, Colgate University, MacDowell, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Yaddo. His first book Unaccompanied is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press, September 2017.

Eloisa Bravo
She’s performed everywhere from SF Sketchfest to the Purple Onion, The Rumpus, Tourettes Without Regrets, and Co Produces Cheaper than Therapy. Find out more at eloisabravo.com

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Is an artist of mixed Pakistani and Lebanese descent. He has performed with Radar Productions, The Stud, throughout the U.S, Colombia, Pakistan and Dubai. Find out more at https://zulfikaralibhuttoart.com/

René Vaz
Curates and hosts the Voz Sin Tinta and Uptown Fridays, and is a lecturer at San Francisco State University. His book, “The Planet of the Dead”, is forthcoming from Nomadic Press

Amanda Muñiz
is a writer from Puebla, Mexico currently studying English Literature and Latino Studies at San Francisco State. She is inspired by her parents, the migrant experience, the land she has trekked over, and chisme.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact the head organizer Baruch Porras Hernandez at baruchporras@gmail.com

WHEN: Saturday OCT 18th, during the third leg of this amazing literary bar crawl, at 8:30pm!

HOW MUCH: FREE!

WHERE: at Laszlo Bar 2526 Mission Street, San Francisco.
WHO: ¿Donde Esta Mi Gente? is a celebration of the Latino Voice in Spoken Word and Poetry in the San Francisco Bay Area!

PERFORMER CURATOR HOSTBARUCH PORRAS HERNANDEZ Has featured all over the bay area. His work can be found in numerous anthologies, he is a Lambda Literary Fellow in Poetry, and head organizer of The San Francisco Queer Open Mic.

WRITER PERFOMERSGABRIEL CORTEZ Former co-director of CalSLAM, UC Berkeley’s spoken word poetry community, Gabriel’s last youtube video went viral, and he’s been performing all over the bay area ever since. He also facilitates workshops and teaches underserved youth.

KAY NILSSON Poet performer currently attending the University of San Francisco. He has performed at slams and poetry readings all over the Bay Area. He has featured at Lunada Literary Lounge, San Francisco Queer Open Mic, and Soma Arts Center.

JENNIFER DRONSKY Writer, comedian and storyteller, lover of cats, she has performed at shows, festivals and bars all over the Bay Area. She lives in the Tenderloin with her wife, and their cats.

DENISE BENAVIDES is a San Diego native poet and performer currently residing in Oakland, CA. Her writing has been published in FatCity Review, Ground Protest Poetry, The Far East: Everything As It Is, and The Acorn Review

LORENZO HERRERA Y LOZANO Is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-nominated Santo de la Pata Alzada: Poems from the Queer/Xicano/Positive Pen, and Amorcito Maricón. His work appears in several anthologies and journals. Lorenzo holds a Masters in Liberal Arts from St. Edward’s University.ord poetry community,

see you all there!

]]>https://dondeestamigente.com/2014/10/07/donde-esta-mi-gente-returns-presented-by-kqed-at-litcrawl/feed/0baruchporrashernandezThe Host Baruuuuch april 2014gabrielKayNilssonlitcrawlJenniferDronksyDenise BenavidesLorenzo Herrera Y LozanoLORENZO HERRERA Y LOZANO AT OUR FRIST SHOW! AND SOME GREAT NEWShttps://dondeestamigente.com/2014/09/16/videos-and-some-great-news/
https://dondeestamigente.com/2014/09/16/videos-and-some-great-news/#commentsTue, 16 Sep 2014 07:52:00 +0000http://dondeestamigente.com/?p=271]]>¿COMO ESTAMOS GENTE?!! Whaaat is up! We have been having a great time looking through all the videos of last April’s festival, ¿Donde Esta Mi Gente?, which was amazing and beautiful and packed, but we know not a lot of folks were able to make it out, so we’re going to start posting the videos on our website. CHECK THEM OUT, also, feel free to share them, share them with the world, we want everyone to know about these writers and what they do.

ALSO, get ready, cause ¿Donde Esta Mi Gente? is coming back! In a smaller form, we are going to be a part of LITCRAWL!! We are so excited. This video features Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano, our famous talented friend who was one of the features of the very first show at Books Inc. Check out this video and then come see Lorenzo rock it with us at LitCralw on the 18th of October, more info coming soon! WOO!

Been a while, well, that is because, Baruch, DEMG program director has been busy,(for info on Baruch, go to his blog), but he always has time to kick it with Latino artists! He has now teamed up with KQED to bring you a night of celebrating Latino Heritage, at Brava Theatre!

Please join him September 24th, at 6:30, at Brava Theatre on 24th Street in the Mission for a night of Comedy, Spoken Word, and Music!! The show is FREE!

KQED is proud to showcase Local Heroes and home grown, Bay Area talent.

Spoken word artists: Sandra Garcia Rivera and Gabriel Cortez!

Comedian: Lydia Popovich!

Music by: La Misa Negra!

KQED Local Heroes: Paul S.Flores and Diana Albarran Chicas, who exemplify the sense of pride and place among Bay Area Latinos.

LYDIA POPOVICH!!

This event is co-sponsored by Brava Theater and is curated in partnership with Galería De La Raza and Baruch Porras-Hernandez (who is also hosting the event) AND, there might be free tamales, FREE TAMALES PEOPLE!!!!
Doors Open at 6:00pm
Event starts at 6:30pm

Funding for KQED Arts is provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

The last show of the festival was like the first two, packed crowd, so many people some had to sit on the ground, stand near the door, but there was a certain energy in the room, a quiet spark before the show started, that stayed throughout the show, that got bigger and bigger till it burst into the clapping and standing ovation we got at the end. The audience was at the edge of their seat the entire show. The writers gave their all, the festival came to a close with a joyous high note and we are incredibly grateful for the experience. At the end when all the writers were on stage against the back drop of such incredible art with so many people clapping as hard as they were, it felt so perfect. It felt like, I will insert what it felt like later. This whole journey started out with a simple question. For years I (Baruch Porras-Hernandez, program director) would go to spoken word shows, poetry shows, poetry readings and ask where are all the Latinos? I would go to a poetry slam and sometimes find one, like Christina Perez, or if I was lucky two in the same space, like Gabriel Cortez and Kay Nilsson. But almost always I would find myself asking that question, ¿Donde Esta Mi Gente? Where are the folks like me?, and I am so incredibly and eternally grateful to Galería de la Raza for helping me answer that question, for supporting me in this journey, this quest to gather up 22 different Latino writers from different backgrounds and bring them together to celebrate the Latino voice and to, get to see them do their thing.

We of course started the show with a note from Galería de la Raza’s Executive Director, my jefa, the lady in charge Ani Rivera. I have to take a moment to thank this lady. From the beginning, since the moment I entered the space she has been incredibly welcoming and supportive. She spoke to the audience of Galería de la Raza’s mission, about the Regen Artist fund and got us off to a good start. Then we began the show with our sacrificial poet Estela de la Cruz, who was one of our poets in the festival, she featured the second day when we performed at Magnet but was in the audience so I asked her to do one piece to break the seal, and or in slam terms, “spread the blood.” haha. She did an excellent job. After that the night for me was intense. I jumped back and forth from organizer host, to someone who just wanted to sit back and enjoy the show, listen to every single poet, but that was hard cause as an organizer you have to make sure everything is going smoothly, so you’re awareness of everything, every detail, every thing that might go wrong, everything that is going right is on full blast. But then the poets would perform and I would be moved and I would find myself just relaxing and enjoying the show. Sarah C. Jiménez, a Program Specialist at Mission Girls, a community organization that targets the growth and development of young Latinas, who is getting her MFA in creative writing at Mills College showed off her stuff as she read to us from her work, it was a wonderful story and the audience loved her. Then we had Marisela Treviño Orta. Marisela is one of the oldest friends I have here in San Francisco. She is one of the first writers I met when I moved here. She is now primarily a playwright, her work is being produced all over the place, but she has an MFA in Poetry and I love her poems, so I when she agreed to join us for the night I was very excited. Then something really special happened, my mother Victoria Hernandez came up to the stage (she nearly killed me, she is very shy and was trying to chicken out, but I was very pushy) she took the mic like a pro and recited one of her pieces by heart, and killed it. Took the room and won them over from the moment she stepped on stage. It was amazing. I was so moved and touched. I’ve been organizing poetry shows for a long time. It had always been one of my dreams to have my mother recite one of her poems at one of my shows. This was one of tbe best gifts an organizer could ask for.

Then the room to had to fan themselves cause the very handsome Tomas Moniz came to the stage and not only is he sexy, he is a badass writer, he read to us from his collection of small poems, and broke some hearts. Tomas and MK Chavez are two of the curators and organizers of Lyrics and Dirges in Berkeley and I was very happy to work with them during this festival. Then MK Chavez took the mic and did some of my favorite poems.

After MK, we had Gabriel Cortez take the stage. Gabriel Cortez is one of my favorite writer performers right now, like all of the folks in the line up, he is also an organizer, educator, and is bringing a lot of attention to the work that Latino writers performers do. He did some poems first about hie grandfather then his grandmother and did an incredible job. After Gabriel Cortez we got some more poetry in Spanish from the adorable Kay Nilsson. Kay is young, (the youngest writer in the festival actually) young, but mighty, he took the mic and made everybody swoon with his words, I was so happy and proud to see audience fall in love with his writing as much as I am.

After Kay performed we were blessed with Christina Pérez. Christina was one of the first Latina slam poets I ever encountered in the scene, back when I was transitioning out of my life as a full time actor and into wanting to be a spoken word artist, she was there, she was winning points and audiences over, she has ran numerous slams herself and is an educator, a mother. Her writing is incredible and when she performs the room is changed. That night she wowed the entire audience. It is an incredible feeling, only curators know, when you love an artist’s work as much as I love Christina Pérez‘s work, to see an audience fall in love with it instantly, to see then freak out, and be scared and moved and get tears in their eyes, the way you did when you first heard the artist’s poetry, that feeling is why curator/organizers do what we do. Christina Pérez did what I admire in artists, made them laugh, cry and think all in one set.

I did some pieces myself, I was a little out of it, cause even though I spent some time putting my set list together, organizer stress and running around getting ready for the show I forgot my set list and my poems on my kitchen table, so I did some poems I had sort of memorized and some that I had in my bag, it was still a good set, and I was happy with the performance. I started with my poem titled Resting Gently on her UniBrow. Then did a series of poems I’m currently calling the Where Are They Now poems, which are poems about Aztec/Mexica gods that envision them as they would be now in 2014, asking what are they doing now? What have the transformed into? Then ended with a poem titled Que Digan Que Estoy Dormido, which is also the title of the manuscript I’m working on.

Then the legendary Guillermo Gómez-Peña took the stage and rocked the house. I was very very honored to have him be a part of this show. I have known about his work for a very long time, but I never ever thought that I would meet him. Then I took the Performance Art workshop with him and the Pocha Nostra group and the way I see performance art was turned upside down. During the workshop Guillermo Gómez-Peña asked some of us that are writers to begin the session with a poem, a recitation, an incantation into the universe and sometimes he read some of his poems that I thought, were fantastic, so when I was putting this show together I thought I had to ask him to participate. When he graciously accepted I was over the moon. He had Denise Benavides open for him, Denise is also a festival poeta, she performed with us the first day of the festival at Books Inc. She was great and the audience fell in love with her again. Then Guillermo Gómez-Peña did his thing and was a true rockstar. The audience was taken on a journey and one of the best parts of his performance was when he screamed into the air “God Bless?” a question, and lead the audience in a call and response, on countries, things, places that God should bless, he would scream “God Bless?” and someone from the audience would answer “Uganda!” then he screamed “God bless, my left testicle!”, then the part came when he screamed “God bless?!” and someone from the audience responded “Your right testicle!” making the room explode with laughter and then, being the true performer that he is, without skipping a beat Guillermo responded “And your left chi chi!” It was pretty epic. After everyone had a change to perform their poetry the surprise part of the evening happened.

When I first envisioned doing this project, I knew I wanted 4 poets to perform with me and a musician doing poetry and music together, then the show turned into a festival and then I added 18 more writers. But I still wanted to keep the original 4 and rehearse with music, so we did. At the end of the night Daniel Owens walked up to the stage with his guitar and MK, Gabriel, Kay, Christina and myself all recited a poem while he played the guitar. MK Chavez read her poem The Patron Saint of Wayward Girls, which I think is just beautiful, and went so well with the music that Daniel picked. Gabriel Cortez then performed his poem called Machete about his great grandfather, and crocodile hunting, and violence and trauma. After Gabriel, Kay Nilsson did a beautiful piece in Spanish called Silencio, then Christina Perez brought the house down with her poem called The Worst Day. Everyone was moved, a lot of people were in tears.

At the end of the show I did a piece currently titled The Temple of Cigarette Smoke. I am very grateful to Daniel Owens for joining us this evening. Him and I have been working together a long time, he is a highly talented musician, singer song writer, and I knew the writers would be in good hands with him.

This entire festival has been a wonderful experience. I am so happy that Galeria de la Raza decided to let me put it together. I have seen writers make discoveries, I’ve witnessed writers discovering each other. I’ve seen audiences share a breath, be at the edge of their seats, cry together, I’ve seen Latino writers network, share stories, help each other, support each other. One of my favorite parts of this festival was how diverse the audiences were. I was very focused on having an all Latino line up each night, but I was hoping to share Latino writer’s work with more than just a Latino audience base, which is why I decided to branch out away from the Mission in those first two shows. But even the audience in at the Galeria was very diverse, we had folks of all ages, sizes, we had straight folks, queer folks, all races, I was very very happy with that.

I am want to thank Ani Rivera, Mark McBeth who took all our pictures on the 19th, Blythe Baldwin who took our pictures on the 12th, Dylan Amaro-Mcintyre for volunteering his time and his car, Bob Guter, Evan Karp, Korima Press, The Marsh, Magic Theatre, Alec White, Books Inc, Magnet, Yosimar, Sarah Dopp, all the folks who donated to the IndieGoGo campaign, Peet’s Coffee and Tea for donating some coffee for our show on the 12th, and a big big thank you to Carrie Gocker, thank you to all the writers that participated, especially Alejandro Murguia, Avotcja, and Guillermo Gómez Peña, and a very very special thank you to Wonder Dave, for all his time and hard work that he put into making this festival happen.

There is so much more to come folks, this, hopefully will not be the last you hear from us, if we get more funding next year, if there is a big call to make it happen again from the people, we will having a festival like this again. Till then stay tuned, I will be updating our Donation page to praise all the funders with infinite gratitude and will be adding a new page to show off the videos of the poets doing their poems.

thank you to everyone that came, everyone that helped me spread the word and to all the people that inspired me and encouraged me to make this show a reality, but most importantly, thank you to Galería de la Raza. Without their Regen Artist grant and all of their support this festival would have not been possible.

WHERE?: AT Galería de la Raza! 2857 24th Street SAN FRANCISCO! Near 24th Street Bart! In the heart of the Mission!

WHAT TIME?: 7:30pm

HOW MUCH?: 10 to 20dollars sliding scale fund raiser. This show will sell out, if you buy your tickets online they are 15 bucks, but it guarantees you a spot in the house!

and here it is, the last sneak peek!

]]>https://dondeestamigente.com/2014/04/19/buy-your-tickets-now/feed/1baruchporrashernandezAlmost There!https://dondeestamigente.com/2014/04/18/almost-there/
https://dondeestamigente.com/2014/04/18/almost-there/#respondFri, 18 Apr 2014 08:27:54 +0000http://dondeestamigente.com/?p=187]]>Hey everyone, this has been one wild ride! We are almost at the last day of the festival! This Saturday at Galería de la Raza! 7:30pm! 10 to 20 sliding scale! The show may sell out, so I would buy your tickets now if you want to make sure you get a spot in the show.

Been really busy and working hard to spread the word. I spent the last week walking around passing out fliers and putting up posters, which is something I’ve been doing for about 5 years now. I love taking to the streets and talking to people in person about what I’m doing, about writing and the spoken word. I like asking people when was the last time they heard something that moved them, outloud?

I say to them, you know that meme, or image, or inspirational quote you read last at work, to yourself that made you all teary eyed? Imagine that for about 5 minutes, set in a poem, recited outloud to your ears, that is spoken word! A lot, a LOT of people look at me like I’m crazy, but I remind them, that there is a beauty in that exchange, there is something about poetry out loud that wakes people up, breathes new life into them. The folks that listen, hear stories of when I go to a show and feel new, reborn, or just get to feel again. Now, these moments are rare, most of the time folks give me dirty looks or say “I’m just going to throw this away.” or “Dude, I’m going to Tahoe that weekend.” or walk away from me. Most of the time it is me, by myself putting posters on poles, walls, cafes, video stores, or holding the poster while my cohost the most amazing Blythe Baldwin tapes them up or push pins them to a cork board, and on we go!

Last night I put them up around the Castro again, two ladies walked by that seemed cool, so I said that to them “You two seem cool, cool people go to this show.” and handed them the flier, they looked at me and looked at the flier and said “Oh! We love spoken word.” I asked “Really?!” they said “Yeah, we watch it on youtube all the time.” I said, “Well, this is like that, but LIVE.” they blinked. I said “Like a youtube video but, the person is infront of you.” they laughed at me, and said they’ll try to make it. It felt good to be out and about, talking to folks, even the ones that thought that they would never go to a poetry show, or the ones that laughed at the thought of it, it was nice to get to talk to people. On my way to the Castro the 24 I was on Jerked going up hill and my back got violently jammed into my hard plastic seat. It was very painful and throughout the night the pain got worse and worse and worse. I passed out fliers at SmackDab the open mic at Magnet and walked back to the Mission passing out fliers and putting up posters.

By the time was at Mission and 24th, the pain was excruciating, I wanted to lay down on the sidewalk and just let the earth take me, hahaha, but instead I distracted myself by taking pictures of signs that I liked. Then I took SELFIES! Yay! Selfies next to signs that I like. Like the Lucky Pork Store. I like pork, pork likes me. What does this have to do with ¿Donde Esta Mi Gente? NOTHING! HAHAHA! ok.

I I’m really looking forward to the show on Saturday. A talented writer named Sarah C. Jimenez is going to be reading a poem or two, a good friend that is a playwright but has a masters in poetry is going to read as well, Marisela Treviño Orta, I’ve known her for a long time. Two folks I highly admire who run the Berkeley literary series Lyrics and Dirges, Tomas Moniz and MK Chavez will also be performing. The very talented and famous Gabriel Cortez and Kay Nilsson will be performing as well. Christina Perez a top notch slam poet, performer, writer organizer is going to do a set, and the legendary Guillermo Gómez Peña is going to be there as well, opening for him, will be Denise Benavides. This is a line up that was very fun to put together, each poet is Latino, Latina, but each one is so unique, dynamic, diverse, electrifying, in different parts of their careers, I am going to be one happy Mexican when we all share the stage together.

BE THERE THIS SATURDAY THE 19TH at Galería de la Raza!! 7:30pm! 2857 24th Street

Here is a sneak peek at two of them Tomas Moniz and Kay Nilsson. Hope to see you all there!